Side Effects May Include
by Asmodean the sly
Summary: Magneto starts experimenting with Lance's powers but he didn't predict what would happen.
1. A Day Like Any Other

**Side Effects May Include . . .**

**Chapter one A Day Like Any Other

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**Todd/Toad POV**

The living room was a mess. The walls were barely holding up and the ceiling looked as if it might cave in at any moment. Since Mystique had vanished off the face of the planet, we have had a difficult time paying the bills. Usually the four of us had to choose between running water and heating. Food was a scarce commodity and there was never any in the cupboards. I was the lucky one though; at least I could snack on flies.

A gaunt figure staggered down the stairs. Lance was leaning heavily on the banister, trying to keep off his left leg. A bandage was wrapped around his calf, but this wasn't his only injury. His entire body was covered in cuts and bruises. Lance spared a glance for me, telling me not to worry about him.

Pietro came down after Lance; he was faring slightly better than Lance but still supported several bruises. As the two trudged through the hallway they ignored the coppery scent that the entire house stank of and the crimson splatter that decorated the wall. Finally reaching the door, Lance jerked it open and we nearly ran to the jeep. Lance and Pietro sat up front while I sat in the back. The three of us sat in silence, waiting for Fred

The drive to school was in silence. No one from the Brotherhood spoke. There was no need. The four of them knew that today would be no better than any other. Probably worse, as we pulled up in Lance's usual parking space. The X-Geeks were getting out of their car.

"Hey Lance, over there", Lance turned his head in the direction of Fred's finger.

The Principal was stalking over to the Brotherhood. Oh great we get blamed for everything. At times like this I actually miss Mystique. When she was Principal we never got in trouble at school. I still hated her but she wasn't that bad, not like Kelly.

When he reached us, Lance said in a condescending tone "So what have we done now?"

Kelly's face went red with anger, "I'll tell you delinquents that all of you are seconds away from being expelled"!

He was really pissed now. "Hey yo, tell us what we did", I didn't really need to ask. He probably just found out about us skipping detention again. I don't know why, it isn't that bigger deal.

"If you are not present this afternoon then expect to be expelled from this school!" Kelly turned around and strode off towards the office.

There was a look of annoyance on Pietro's face, but Fred didn't seem to be bothered by Kelly's outburst. Yesterday Lance woke up in a lot of pain. He tried to hide it from the three of us but it was fairly obvious when his vision blurred and couldn't drive us to school. We all decided to stay home because we couldn't get to school without Lance to drive except Pietro which is why we didn't go to detention. Lance had a difficult time admitting to us that he was in pain let alone to a idiot like Kelly.

"Anyway, I gotta split, see you at lunch" I said before walking towards my Social Studies class.

Damn, that was unfair. How am I supposed to know that we had a test today. This sucks. I probably failed and it wasn't even my fault. Then that fuzz ball kept laughing at me. Just because he has it easy living up in that mansion. He wouldn't last one day in the brotherhood house.

I stormed down the hallway, although no one ever bothered to move out of my way and I accidentally walked into Duncan Matthews. Oh no, this is bad.

"Hey, Tolansky, what the hell are you trying to do", the Jock smirked at my problem. He knows I am not strong enough to fight back. His arm reached down and lifted me up by my collar. Duncan was about to punch me but someone else attacked him, leaving me free of his grasp.

I looked up to see my rescuer was Lance. Fury blazed in his eyes. Even Duncan took a step back from the look in his face.

"I think you want to leave. Now". Growled Lance, the ground shook slightly to emphasise his words.

Duncan and the rest of the jocks broke into a run. Once they were out of sight the floor became stable again and Lance turned around. He face held no fury as it did seconds ago, instead it was replaced by a look of concern

"You, okay?" he questioned.

"Yeah I'm good, thanks man" Lance smiled slightly at that and I continued," so how about we go get some lunch, yo, I'm starving" Lance and I set off towards the cafeteria, I am sure we are both starving.

Since Principal Darkholme's disappearance we had lost all our money. Lance was able to shake the door to her room loose but the money and jewels only went so far. The city had already shut off our water and was threatening to do the same with the heating, this forced lance to get a job.

At the moment he worked at the local fast food outlet. It was bad pay but we needed the money. Usually if I don't understand something in my homework I ask Lance how to do it. Most people don't know how smart he really is, they just assume from his grunge appearance that Lance is a failure academically. Lance gets high test scores but it's the homework assignments that bring his grades down. Lance rarely has enough time to sleep and work let alone complete hours of schoolwork.

The sound of sizzling along with the smell of burnt food drifted from the kitchen. Oh no, smells like Fred has tried cooking again. He wasn't really that bad of a cook. Fred just had a tendency to get distracted and burn whatever food he was cooking. Lance was a decent cook but Pietro's food was just horrifying. Not even Fred had dared to touch Pietro's cooking if it could be called that.

"Dinner's ready," Fred's voice drifted up to my room.

Tin spaghetti sandwiches again. It was an extremely cheap meal. Even with Lance's job, money was tight. Dinner tasted fine but it was times like this I was glad I ate bugs as well. The flies especially add flavour to the bland meal.

I don't think Fred really tastes what he eats because he shoves it down his mouth so fast. When it comes to eating, Fred is almost as fast as Pietro. Quicksilver wasn't his usual hyper self tonight. Rather than shovelling food down an a barely visible rate, Pietro was playing with his spaghetti hardly eating at all. His eyes were laced with concern.

Pietro wasn't the only one worried. Lance's headaches were getting worse. He was now taking too many pills. He was going through a bottle every few days. If Lance kept going at this rate, he was going to overdoes and die.

That is the most frightening thing I can think of. Lance held the Brotherhood together. Without him, we wouldn't be able to get by. Once Freddy suggested we go to a hospital. Both Quickie and I had wanted to agree but who knows what would happen if they found out that he was a mutant. We had thought about asking Baldly to check Lance out. To be honest, Lance would rather die than ask him and Summers for help.

"Yo guys, I gotta get back to that homework", I couldn't stand the tension any longer.

Something is wrong. We all can feel it. I try telling myself that Lance is fine, he's at work so the X-Geeks wouldn't attack him there. The nagging feeling won't go away. I looked at the clock hanging on the wall. It suddenly struck me what was wrong. Lance should have been home over an hour ago. I leapt off my bed and ran down the stairs.

"Quickie, you have to go find Lance", Pietro was standing still.

Both Freddy and Pietro had horrified expressions on their faces.

"Todd, there's no need", Freddy's voice was quiet and low. "That was Baldy, Lance was in an accident".

As soon as those words left his lips I slumped down to the ground. My worst nightmare had come true.

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	2. Blinding Pain

**Side Effects May Include . . .**

**Chapter Two – Blinding Pain**

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** Lance/Avalanche POV**

My spine aches like hell but unfortunately the pain in my back is the least of my problems. The agony that tears through my mind never stops anymore. It doesn't matter whether or not I use my powers, it keeps getting worse.

Sometimes my hands will start shaking uncontrollably. It always stops but every time it gets a bit longer. Luckily none of the guys have seen it happen. I am supposed to look after them, not the other way round.

I nearly whimpered as another wave of pain assaulted my head. I didn't dare, my boss was watching me like a hawk. He always does that now. Nick never glares at me; all I can see in his eyes is concern. He is pretty cool and doesn't drive us like slaves.

I know Nick was hesitant to hire me at first, which isn't surprising considering that I share with the rest of the Brotherhood the record for the most detentions in the history of Bayville high. I think Nick realises that when I ask for more hours tat it isn't for a CD player.

Unfortunately, Magneto doesn't care if we need money to pay the bills. The way he sees it is that if we can't survive now then we aren't to be in his new team.

"Hey, Alvers. You eaten yet?" Nick's voice interrupted my line of thought.

"Yeah I ate before I came," I answered immediately.

Some how I don't think Nick would be too pleased if I told him I hadn't eaten since yesterday. The last thing we needed was social services knocking on our door. All we could afford now was a meal a day each. Since Fred and Pietro needed more food because of their mutations, I sometimes gave up mine for them.

In the last few months I have changed physically. Due to the lack of food I was nearly as skinny as Quicksilver. Lately I have also been wearing a jacket to cover the numerous bruises and cuts that decorate my body. Even in this hot kitchen I am wearing a long sleeved shirt underneath my work top.

There wasn't anything I could do to get the four of us out of this situation. So I made a deal with Magneto. As long as he didn't hurt the others then he could do whatever he wanted to me. Most of the time Magneto would just beat me into a bloody pulp but others he would hook weird machines to my body. They were the worst times.

I have never felt anything so painful before in my life. I'm not sure what he was doing exactly but ever since he started, my headaches have tripled in pain. Every time I wake up from Magneto's experimentation, with my body writhing in pain I ask myself, why I am doing this. Then I remember Wanda. Pietro told us about his twin sister and what Magneto did to her. I swore that I would never let one of my family members go through that.

Glancing at my watch, I realise it is the end of my shift. Great, my body is screaming for sleep.

"Hey Nick, see ya tomorrow," I said quietly as I walked past my boss.

"Yeah, drive safe kid," Nick called out over the commotion in the kitchen.

I walked out into the car park, to my jeep. It isn't much but it's mine. I think it might fall apart soon; it hasn't had a check up since I got it. That can't be good for the engine but it's not like we have the money to get it fixed.

Opening the door was a challenge but it eventually budged and I got in the jeep and drove away. My leg hurt so much when I put my foot down on the accelerator. The training session last night left more than bruises on my body. Magneto sent knives at us and I couldn't get out of the way in time and it slashed the back of my leg. Strengthening my resolve, I drove on into the night.

The cars in front of mine blurred slightly as a sharp searing pain shot through my skull. I pulled the jeep over. Reaching into my pants I pulled out a bottle of painkillers. I grabbed a handful and shoved them into my mouth. I didn't need water anymore to swallow them, lately I had to take twice as much as before.

The pain was getting worse every time. Sometimes I nearly knock myself unconscious, I would gladly do it if I wouldn't wake up with the pain worse than before. I never get a full night's sleep anymore. It just hurts too much. The pills weren't working. They should have started getting rid of the pain by now. Instead, the headache was steadily getting worse.

I wanted to scream but my mouth wouldn't obey. My hand searched a mess of colours. I stumbled out the door, my hearing was on mute. Seconds passed until something slammed into my side, my body twisted and I landed on the hard road. My head collided soon after I made contact with the bitumen and I sunk into the blackness of oblivion.

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Thanks for the feedback Psychic Athena, lizzie, Emily, Descendent, Growing Pain, Izolda and PEACE!. 


	3. An Enemy in Need

**Side Effects May Include . . .**

**Chapter Three - An Enemy in Need**

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Scott/Cyclops POV

I don't understand Jean sometimes. I mean she is a telepath for God's sake, how can she not know what a jerk Duncan is. Today he was being a pretentious bully and she didn't even notice. To make an already bad day even worse I had waited around for Jean, to give a lift back to the institute, but I found out from Taryn that she had already taken off with Duncan. Apparently he was having yet another party and everyone had been invited except me. Not to mention by the time I found out from Taryn where Jean was it was already dark.

A pick-up truck overtook me, driving well above the speed limit. Suddenly the truck slammed on its brakes. I did seconds later; luckily the car had been far enough in front so my convertible stopped before we collided.

I leapt out of my seat and ran over to the front of the truck. A middle-age man was sitting in the front seat with a look of abject horror on his face. I followed his gaze down to where a body lay on the ground, it was Lance. Blood was seeping onto the tarmac and covered the prone form of one of the brotherhood. I rushed over to Lance, he was in a pretty bad shape, and no amount of first aid was going to help him.

The sound of screeching tyres interrupted my reverie. The driver had taken off and the truck was soon out of sight. I had to risk moving him, there wasn't any time to call the professor as Lance was quickly losing more blood. Picking him up was surprisingly easy as Lance didn't weigh nearly as much as I thought he would. Placing him on the back seat, I sped off towards the mansion.

As I reached the front doors of the mansion, carrying Lance I ignored the questioning looks of everybody in the lobby as I made my way through to the medical bay. Thankfully the elevator was empty so the journey did not take long. Dr McCoy had a shocked look on his face when I burst through the doors.

"Oh my stars and garters! What happened to him?" were the first words out of his mouth, but before I could answer he said, "On second thoughts just put him on a bed, we will sort that out later." I did as Beast asked and was soon ushered out of the room and told to wait outside.

I hate the metal doors in front of me. It is the only thing keeping me from finding out if Lance is alright. I may hate Alvers but I wouldn't wish this upon anybody. Even Logan had flinched when I ran through the lobby. There hadn't been a part of Lance's body that wasn't covered in crimson blood. His left arm had been bent out of shape and had appeared to be almost shredded by the front of the truck.

After I had been kicked out of the infirmary, I hadn't been able to keep the contents of my stomach down. Thankfully, none of the other students had seen Lance's injuries as they were all at Duncan's party. About an hour after I had been waiting I heard the mansion doors open and the voices of Jean and Kitty drift down. Well I guess everyone is back from the party. Finally the doors open.

"Is he okay?" the concern in my voice seem to surprise both me and Dr McCoy.

"I was able to stop the bleeding, but Lance had lost a lot of blood so I had to give him a transfusion. His arm was broken in several different places," Beast's voice was tired and weary, "I think he will be okay but the truth be told, only time will tell."

"I still have to do a number of tests but they can wait until later, so you can go on in and see him," Beast said, "I have to explain to the other adults what is going on."

I rushed into the room; Lance was deathly pale and covered in bandages. The bruises were clear on his gaunt face, several cuts also stood out against his pale skin. There was a cast on Lance's left arm and his right one was wrapped in white bandages.

Feelings of guilt lingered at the back of my mind. I had previously noticed a difference in Lance's appearance, mainly his now gaunt look. I had dismissed it, thinking I must have been imaging things and even if he was having problems it was no concern of mine. If I had done something when I had first noticed, then maybe Lance wouldn't be lying in front of me.

The door to the medical bay crashed open and a figure flew in. Quicksilver stopped millimetres away from the bed, concern and panic shone on his face. Seconds later Toad hopped through the doorway. The look he gave me was unnerving. It was one of absolute horror; I never thought how the rest of the brotherhood would take Lance's injuries. I was regretting that, as I couldn't formulate any words and just stared back at Toad's distressed face. Blob came in, barely fitting through the doorway. His expression mirrored his friends. I just stood, at a loss for words, hoping they would break the silence first.

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Thank you for the feedback j.l., Lies-and-Truth, molace and PEACE!, it is very much appreciated. 


	4. Something Unusual

**Side Effects May Include . . .**

**Chapter Four – Something Unusual**

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POV – Beast

It had been along time since I had seen such severe injuries as Lance's, especially on one so young. Even though such a circumstance is not something the professor could have predicted, I am glad that he has seen fit to install the mansion with proper medical facilities.

Without them I don't think Lance would have pulled through, there is no way we could have taken him to a hospital, I don't want to imagine the reaction the doctors would have had, if they found out what Lance was.

I'll be the first to admit that I held little affection for the Brotherhood. They had no regard for the rules and absolutely no respect for authority, but I would never wish this upon them.

Lance wasn't too bad at chemistry even if he just did the subject to be in the same class as Kitty. He usually paid attention in that class as well, my theory is that he was trying to impress her by being studious, I'm not quite sure if it worked or not.

To be honest I was a bit surprised at the reactions from the rest of the Brotherhood. It was an eye opener. They always seemed selfish, too wrapped up in themselves to care about each other, but their panicked faces dissuaded me of that notion. Now, that I think about it, they always did work well together as a team, even if they never did beat the X-men.

After walking out of the Professor's office, I was almost bowled over by Pietro, dragging both Todd and Fred along. Professor X had already known about Lance's injuries and hence told the other adults. Unfortunately all we seemed to know about the accident was that Lance had been hit by a truck. I want to know why he would get out of his jeep and walk into on coming traffic, I never thought of Lance as suicidal.

The other thing that had me greatly concerned was the bruises and injuries that Lance had, that didn't occur as a result of the vehicle. There were deep cuts on his left leg that had become infected.

Thankfully it was easily treatable with antibiotics; those cuts had to be a couple of days old at least. They didn't look like they had been made with a knife; in fact I wasn't quite sure what had caused them.

The results of Lance's blood test began printing. Picking up the sheet carefully, I began to read. There were a number of minor deficiencies, mainly a lack of iron. Another thing that worried me was the gaunt appearance that Lance had gained. He looked very different to the trouble maker I remember from my old chemistry and gym classes. They were obvious signs of malnutrition.

There were also signs of high levels of paracetamol in his blood. The level was still low enough so that an overdose wouldn't occur just yet, although anymore and he would be heading into dangerous territory. Judging from the numbers, Lance must have taken a lot of Tylenol. It probably would have been needed though, what with the cuts and bruises already on his body.

My eyes wandered down the sheet. What is that? It was a multitude of chemicals mixed together. I had never seen such a combination before. Confusion clouded my mind. I never thought I would see some of these chemicals in a human let alone at the same time. They weren't the kind of drugs you find on the street or even in a standard laboratory. How could Lance get his hands on these materials? More importantly why? They weren't hallucinogens.

One particular drug stood out to me, it was a genetic enhancer. Extremely dangerous and experimental. It was still supposed to be in the preliminary stages of testing and I didn't think I would be seeing it in a human for a number of years, if ever.

The sound of Logan opening the door interrupted my musing. His expression was one of seething hatred, I found it quite shocking. Road accidents such as this unfortunately seem to be fairly commonplace around the country, so I didn't the need for such anger.

Logan's fists were also clenched in an obvious attempt to hold rein his fury in. I was at a loss at what to say to the man but thankfully he solved that problem for me by speaking first.

"That son of a bitch!" Logan spat whilst slamming his fist on the metal table, it came out with a slight dent where Wolverine's punch had struck.

"To whom would you be referring to?" my confusion was growing by the second. Had one of the Brotherhood caused a stir or was it something else entirely?

"I just went to check on the rock tumbler and I smelt something on him I shouldn't have," Wolverine's anger seemed to be increasing with every word, "Sabretooth. Some of those injuries were caused by Sabretooth, I'm sure of it."

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Thanks to descendent for the review, your support is appreciated. 


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